Method of producing tomato juice beverage



1937- E. c. EERTs 2,092,729

METHOD OF PRODUCING TOMATO JUICE BEVERAGE Filed oct. 15, 1934 INVENTOREdward (7. Eberta,

ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 7, 1937 I UNITED! STATES PATENT OFFICE METHODor PRODUCING TOMATO JUICE BEVERAGE Edward C. Eberts, Indianapolis, Ind.,assignor to Stokely Brothers .& Company, Indianapolis, Ind,. acorporation of Delaware Application October 15,'19 34, Serial No.748,331 1 Claim. (01. 99-105) Tomato juice intended to be packaged forinpool, of juices and entrapped fine pulp; the withterstate commercemust, of course, comply with drawal, from upper regions of the pool, ofpulp government regulations that it shall be an unand entrapped juices;the further heat treatment concentrated pasteurized product consistingof a of the last-mentioned pulp and entrapped juices 5 liquid with asubstantial portion of'the pulp,- to vaporize portions thereof; thecondensation 5 expressed from ripe tomatoes; A product anof the vaporsemanating from said last-mencontain vitamines A, B and C and that, whenwith the first-mentioned extracted juices and en- 10 such juices areproduced by substantial crushing trapped pulp. of the fruit by the usualmethods in order to The accompanying drawing illustrates diaobtain ajuice having a commerciallyacceptable grammatically apparatus by meansof which my solid content, there is a rapid flavor deteriorationimproved method may be commercially pracand loss of vitamin'content,particularly vitaticed. In the drawing I0 is the main cooking 15 min C,before the juice can be commercially vat within which a dominant tomatopool is. to packaged and that, in many instances, the solid bemaintained, said vat being provided with a content of the extractedjuice has a tendency to suitable heating coil S. Projected downwardlyseparate from the liquid. into said vat is tube I2 of considerablysmaller When tomatoes are crushed the cells, within diameter than thevat but of an internal diameter which the enzymes are naturally sealed,are somewhat in excess of the largest tomato diamebroken and freshlyliberated enzymes, in the ter. The upper part of t s tube leads from apresence of oxygen, apparently very actively and point above the maximumlevel of the tomato quickly cause or stimulate a change of pectin topool to a plane near the bottom of the vat. pectic acid and, as aresult,a substantial vitamin Leading into tube ill, at I3, is a feed spout I425 content appears to be destroyed. Apparently, through which freshfruit may be delivered. also, the development of pectic acidsubstantially Within tube I2 is a screw flight conveyor IS the In thecommercial Production of tomato juice is adjacent a perforated plate l5obstructing the 30 by there remains a considerable volume of tomatolower end of tube l2. Below the plate It and solids which must beutilized in other tomato carried by the shaft of the screw conveyor I6is products if the production of juice is to be profitan agitator l1.able- Arranged'in the lower zone of tank I0 is a Tomatoes grown in somelocalities under the juice separator 25 the interior of which delivers35 normal climatic conditions, and those grownin to a pipe 26 whichleads into the bottom of a other localities under abnormally dryconditions, tank 28 which may be rendered air tight. Leadare so lackingin liquid content that difilculty has ing from the upper regions of tank28 is a sucheretofore been found in lawfully producing tion,pipe 29which leads through a trap 30 and therefrom a satisfactory andcommercially acpipe 3| to an exhauster 32. Associated with pipe 40ceptable tomato juice in profitable volumes, and 3| is an automaticcontrol valve 33 which will my present invention relates to an improvedserve to automatically limit the degree of minus method of treatingfresh tomatoes (having the pressure which exhauster 32 may establishwithin above characteristics) to profitably produce the upper regions oftank 28.

, Leading from tank l0 preferably at a level beverage and a residue oftomato pulp usable in above the level of separator 25 is a pipe 40 whichthe production of other tomato food products. leads through valve llinto a cooker 42. This Briefly stated my present invention, in its mostcooker may be rendered air-tight by cover 43, acceptable form, involvesthe following steps: and leading from the upper regions of the cooker 5the establishment and maintenance at superis a conduit 44 whichcomprises the condenser atmospheric temperatures of a dominant pool ofcoil 45 of the condenser 46.

fresh tomato pulp and tomato juices; theprompt Pipe 44 leads, through asuitable valve 41, into submergence of fresh tomatoes in said pool andtank 28, a bypass 49 leading from pipe 44, com the crushing of thosetomatoes while submerged; veniently through valve 41 to permit dischargethe withdrawal, from a submerged region or the of any surplus ofcondensate.

may be inducted into regions of tank 28 is preferably a mechanicalstirring mechanism 55 by means of which the contents ofthe tank 28 maybe stirred.

The operation is as follows:

\ A dominant pool of juices and pulp of tomatoes is first established intank I!) and brought to and maintained at sterilizing temperature, sayabout 180 to 190 degrees F., sufficient to discourage enzyme reactions.Fresh tomatoes delivered through chute l3 will be forced downwardly byconveyor l6 so as to be promptly submerged in the dominant pool, heatedthereby and carried to and expressed through the perforated plate l5. Adesired quantity of liquid and entrapped fine pulp will pass through theseparator 25 into tank.

28, this movement being assisted by reason of a minus pressuremaintained within tank 28 and occurring without such splashing as wouldfacilitate oxidation.

When the tomatoes being treated are lacking in liquid content, as forinstance such tomatoes as are normally produced in California, theextract which passes through the separator 25 is much too thick to besatisfactory as a beverage.

The pulp and entrapped juice extracted from a zone of tank III, abovethe zone of separator 25 may pass through pipe 40 into kettle 42 whereit is subjected to additional heat treatment necessary to prepare it foruse in other tomato products such as catsup, chili sauce, etc. Thevapors arising from the tomato mass as aresult of this heat treatmentpass through pipe 44 and condensing coil 45 so that the condensate maybe delivered to the contents of tank 28 and be mixed therewith, therebysupplying a suflicient amount of liquid, obtained from the tomatoes, toproduce an acceptable tomato juice beverage of proper liquid content,the desired liquidity being obtained without dilution so far as tomatocontent is concerned.

It will, of course, arising from kettle tiles other than water and thatthese volatiles will condense and form part of the condensate which isdelivered to thesxtragt obtained through the juice separator 25.

be understood that the vapors the tank 28. In the lower,

juice beverage of satisfactory 42 will contain tomato vola- Heretoforethe heat treatment of masses of tomato pulp and entrapped juices as astep in the production of tomato products of low liquid content hasignored and wasted the vapors produced during this heating step.

Tomato juice beverage has heretofore been produced from California-growntomatoes but, because of the low water content of these tomatoes greatdifficulty has been experienced in lawfully obtaining a tomato juicebeverage of acceptable vitamin and liquid content and it has been foundnecessary to perform the necessary crushing operations while the fruitis cold in order to obtain suflicient liquid. When tomato juices areproduced in that way it has been found that there is a very decidedvitamin loss. On the other hand, vwhile attempts have been made toproduce a tomato juice beverage by a hot process there has apparentlybeen a reaction between the water content and the pectin content whichhas resulted in a tomato juice beverage having less fluidity than whenfruit of the same character is subjected to a cold process, although,under proper conditions, the tomato juice produced by the hot processwill have a vitamin content better than that of the cold process juice.

I have found that by following the method which I have outlined abovewherein fruit of low water content is promptly submerged in a hotdominant pool and then reduced topulp and juice and wherein theextracted juice with entrapped pulp is supplemented by the condensateavailable from the additionally heat-treated pulp and entrapped juice, Iam able. to produce a tomato fluidity having adequate vitamin content.

I claim as my invention:

The method of producing tomato juice beverage from fresh tomatoes whichcomprises the following steps:--the establishment of a dominant pool oftomato juice and pulp and the maintenance thereof at a sterilizingtemperature; submergence of fresh tomatoes in said dominant pool and thesubsequent reduction of the tomatoes while submerged to pulp and juice;the extraction from a submerged zone of the pool of juice and entrappedfine pulp; the extraction from the pool of pulp and entrapped juice; theheat treatment of said extracted pulp and entrapped juice to reduce thewater content thereof by *vaporization; and the condensation of saidvaporsand admixture of the condensate with the extracted juice andentrapped p'ulp.

EDWARD c. EBERTS.

the prompt

